Foods that Fool You
By Nancy Honig, Adult Development Agent
April Fool’s Day is a day for pranks and jokes. A day to fool others into believing something is true that is not. What you may not realize is that you are being fooled everyday by some of the foods that you eat. Foods that you think are healthy that are not. Foods that you think are “natural”, but they are not. Here are some ways you may be being fooled.
We hear the benefits of drinking pomegranate, blueberry, or acacia juice. But are you really getting just that in your juice? Many commercial juices are a blending of various juices. For example, a popular cranberry-pomegranate juice list water, then sugar as their first ingredients on the label, followed by cranberry juice and then pomegranate juice. If you look closely, you see it is called a flavored juice drink. It says 100% Vitamin C, but nowhere does it claim to be 100% juice. It is important to closely read all labels on the package so as not to be fooled but what is really in there.
While you are looking at your food labels don’t be fooled by words such as natural, lightly sweetened, made with real…, and multi grain. These are typically more a branding strategy than a substantive label. The Food and Drug Administration has no guidelines for use of the term “natural”. The USDA defines “natural” as “a product containing no artificial ingredient or added color” that “is only minimally processed,” meaning it’s “processed in a manner that does not fundamentally alter the product.” Unfortunately, the majority of people think that natural on the label means that the food product is free of artificial colors or ingredients. That is not necessarily true. Once again it is up to you to play detective and not be fooled.
There is a push to eat more whole grains so when you see a package that says “made with whole grains” we may snatch it up thinking we are eating something healthy. However, foods don’t have to contain a specific amount of whole grains to be able use “made with whole grains” on the label. So even if the product is 80% white flour and only 20% whole grain flour, it could still be boasting that it is made with whole grains. Remember to read the list of ingredients. It will always be listed with the largest amount ingredient to the smallest.
One way to keep from being fooled about grains is the Whole Grain stamp that began appearing on food items in 2005. . The 100% Stamp assures you that a food contains a full serving or more of whole grain in each labeled serving and that ALL the grain is whole grain.
So don’t let manufactures fool you into thinking a product is something it is not. Take the time to read labels and do your research so you won’t be “tricked” into believing their tall tales!
